Nasheed to have 30-mins to defend himself in no-confidence motion

The General Committee of the Parliament today decided to give the Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed, 30 minutes to respond to the no-confidence motion against him during the debate.

The agenda of the General Committee meeting was to determine the number of members to speak, and the length of the opportunity given to a member to speak in the debate on the no-confidence motion against Nasheed.

The letter sent to the committee by the parliamentary administration requesting the committee to fix the times said that the rules of the parliament stipulate that a debate on the impeachment motion should not last more than three hours under any circumstances.

Among the members present at the committee meeting, MDP's Funadhoo MP Mohamed Shahid moved that a total of two hours be allocated for the debate on the issue, of which 30 minutes should be given to Nasheed to speak in his defence.

"And I give him the opportunity to use 10 minutes for the opening, 10 minutes for the middle, and 10 minutes for the conclusion plus the remaining one and half hours will be divided among the political parties and independent members in percentage terms,” Shahid said.

However, Central Henveiru MP Ali Azim, who belongs to Nasheed's The Democrats, said Nasheed has serious allegations against him and should be given more time to answer. The rules allow members to debate for three hours and give the Speaker separate time to speak, he said.

However, there was disagreement in the committee regarding this. Alifushi MP Mohamed Rasheed Hussain said that the rules on the debate on the impeachment motion have previously been interpreted as a total of three hours for the entire debate.

"Therefore, I don't think there is any room for different interpretations of the rules," he said.

After the committee members discussed the matter, four out of six members present voted in support of Shahid's motion. Two members voted against the motion.

The other members of the committee who attended included Hulhudhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb and Fonadhoo MP Ali Siraj.

The motion of no confidence in Nasheed, signed by 49 MDP MPs, was accepted and notices were sent to him and MPs last Thursday.

Last June, MDP filed a no-confidence motion with 56 signatures. However, the case was withdrawn in the middle of the two rounds of the presidential election.